


The cost of winning

by Talkingcheese



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ellie is mentioned, Other, Valiant Hero Ending | VC (Henry Stickmin), can be interpreted as romantic, feelings are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26194576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talkingcheese/pseuds/Talkingcheese
Summary: The top hat clan was out of good, and Henry made it back to earth but that didnt matter, even if he won, the cost was greater than anything he could have ever imagined, so how will he go on?.
Relationships: Charles Calvin/Henry Stickmin
Comments: 3
Kudos: 100





	The cost of winning

“You could say that was the greatest plan-”  
Those were the last words Henry heard from Charles before the ship exploded  
Henry had tried with all his might to go back for him, for his friend, the one who had sacrificed his own life for him.

As Henry stared paralyzed into the dark abyss that was space, he reflected on how they had come to this point, all that had happened between them, the memories were too painful to call after witnessing his death but his mind was decided to torture him.

His dorky singing, his recklessness, even the way he talked were fresh on his mind, haunting him as he felt both his head and chest in pain, he didn’t even notice when he landed.

He explained the situation and how Charles had died as a hero, a sacrifice Henry would never forget and was beginning to doubt he could ever recover from.

Yes, he won but at what cost?  
He should have had, for once considered the consequences of his own actions, this, was the reason he was meant to be alone.

He was better when he had no attachment but saying he regretted the friendship they shared would be a tremendous lie and a disrespect to Charles memory, he didn’t regret a single minute they spend together, and if Henry could, he would probably give all he had to go back.

All those thoughts as he was sitting next to Charles grave, he refused to go anywhere else.  
He saw the sky get dark and the stars shined on the clear sky, mocking him.  
Henry hated to look to them after what he had lived, even if it was his fault and his only.

But suddenly he saw something on the sky, a shooting star?  
Henry looked around, he was alone and the universe sometimes indulged him, he had nothing to lose.  
“Please...just give me something.. I can’t stand him being gone”

That’s when he noticed the star was getting bigger and bigger, also was that metal?  
An escape pod!  
CHARLES  
It had to be him, it just had to be!  
But the escape pod fell into the sea bellow and without a second thought  
Henry jumped into the sea.  
He swam as fast as his legs allowed, not even caring about anything else but getting into that escape pod, and he did.

He stated hitting on the door with all his might as it sunk, trying to open it  
and he finally managed to break the glass  
Charles was inside!  
But he was more than a little roughed up, he was really injured, by some sort of miracle he made it and was still breathing.

Henry got him out of the pod and swam back to the coast  
he used his cellphone to call the general and told him to bring an ambulance.  
15 min later, Henry was aboard the ambulance as they drove to give Charles the treatment he needed.  
Eventually, Henry was left waiting on the military hospital´s waiting room  
the minutes and hours were eternity as uncertainty ate at him.  
Charles had to make it, he didn’t come all this way here to die at the hospital.

The minute he saw the nurse get out of the room he asked about his condition  
“Well… you aren’t family of Charles, but since you found and brought him…  
He was very very damaged, several broken bones, some issues with his organs  
I heard they had to do some… procedures”

But he wasn’t dead  
“Can I see him?” Henry asked, he needed to see him, just to make sure this was real

“He is stable, although he is still unconscious because of the medicine”  
The nurse explained to Henry, for now it was probably better to let Charles rest.  
still, Henry didn’t move from the waiting room and eventually was offered to stay the night, being that they weren’t really able to contact with anyone from Charles family.

When Henry woke up, he saw the nurse get out of the room again  
how long was he out?  
“Is he better?” Henry asked  
“He is awake now and he is stable, he should be allowed to have a visit” she confirmed

Henry walked into the room  
Charles had been patched up with some mechanical upgrades, he certainly looked different but that didn’t matter, he was still Charles and he was alive  
“Hey..are you feeling ok?” Henry asked 

Charles looked at him for a hot minute   
“Umm… yeah I still feel funny because of the medicine and-  
wait, why did they let a stranger into my room?”

That moment Henry felt like the world was spinning too fast  
“Don’t you remember me?” Henry asked looking obviously hurt 

“Sorry buddy, a lot of things are hazy right now… they said I suffered a pretty bad trauma on my head and you know since I’m now part robot, I suppose whatever happened was either too traumatic, or the part of my brain where that was now has circuits in it”   
Charles didn’t know why he kept sharing this with a stranger but he felt some sort of need to explain himself to this man and they couldn’t just have let anyone into the room.

Too traumatic  
Henry caused this  
He costed Charles body and his memories, all because he hadn’t thought about consequences for once.

“Hey...don´t look at me like that, it’s not like I wanted to forget  
I don’t want to see you make that face” Charles felt so much pity for this stranger and he didn’t remember why.  
“My memories could still be in there you know?  
I feel something about you, I know I used to know you, maybe you could help me”  
he felt like if he didn’t gave this man a way to help him, he might as well start to cry and that would be bad for him, Charles didn’t want to see this one cry.

“Not a maybe, I own you Charles, I will find a way to help you”  
Henry explained, he did own Charles his life and he planned on paying his debt for the first time.

“You could start by telling me if I used to like cinnamon  
they gave me breakfast but, none of this looks either edible or rings any bells”  
Charles was trying to lighten up the mood even as he was in bed with a cyborg body and no memories.

“I mean… you were on the army, I doubt the rations tasted any better” Henry hadn’t ever eaten to know, it was just a guess, but Charles had managed to ease his pain a bit.

“Wait, I’m a soldier?” asked Charles as he ate his oatmeal with a spoon, yes it tasted awful but he was hungry and he wasn’t expecting to get something better.

“Not really, you are a pilot, you have a helicopter” Henry explained

“Wow…that actually sounds cool! I mean imagine being able to travel across the sky and see things from up there” even if he didn’t remember doing those things he knew it was something he liked  
“You used to like to crash it into places, there was this time I asked you to pick me up and then you were going to crash your helicopter into a wall to take a guard down” Henry remembered that, obviously they would have both died but that didn’t mean he didn’t laugh at that being Charles thought process.

“Did we work together?” his friend asked, he was trying as he could to piece things together from what he was hearing, even if none of that was ringing he felt like it was true

“Sometimes, I have a complicated history but that time the government owned me a favor  
also I couldn’t think of anyone better to help” he had thought about getting help from that girl he was locked up with, what was her name? Ellie?  
but…at the time he preferred to stick to what he knew, bringing someone new on board would mean opening up to the possibility of treason.

“Complicated history huh? You sound like a very interesting guy, I wish I was that interesting” Charles was sure his life as a pilot wasn’t boring but this guy sounded like the kind that ran away from sites with a huge explosion behind him 

“Are you kidding? Of course you are interesting! I don’t know how you managed to always keep cool even in the most dire of situations” even when he was about to die, Henry never heard any fear on his friends voice

“The bold action man type huh?” suddenly Charles did get the tune stuck on his mind  
he liked to sing! Well that was something

“Did you?” Henry asked, seeing the nod made him feel better, it was working!

“Tell me more, maybe that will help” Charles encouraged him 

“I used to be a criminal, I stole a diamond and ended up in prison, managed to get out, then the government kidnapped me to take down a group of thieves called the Top Hat clan, you helped me back then, then I was locked up in the complex and i escaped” Henry was cramping a lot of things, yes but the most important details were there

Charles remembered that day, the day Henry and him met and somehow they had made a good team, things were coming back, Henry was a legend and his friend, he was very worried when he head Henry had died and refused to believe he was actually dead.  
Yes he was a criminal, but he was smarter than your average street rat, and also he had a way of leaving a path of destruction behind him that was just epic and very attractive to Charles if he was honest with himself, he liked Henry and he would have done anything for him.

“That… came back but, Henry, how did we end up like this?” he felt dread at asking but… he needed to know  
Henrys face did tell him he shouldn’t have asked, but he still needed to know

“You helped me when I was going to a tavern, you told me you have heard about me being dead, then we talked about the Top Hat Clan being a problem, things were getting personal and you believed we could take them out together, of course I wasn’t going to say no to something like that.  
You drove a ship into space and we used a ball of trash to get me near the ship  
then you crashed our ship into the base and we got inside, problem was you hit the core and the thing as about to explode into pieces and you tried hacking the panel, that didn’t work so we had to through the vent, problem was there was three capsules and two were…unavailable so we took the one that was empty but then someone tried to break in, they grabbed me but you pushed me inside and fought them so I could get out, you told me you would find some other way of getting out but I knew it was a lie, there was no time, you weren’t going to make it but as hard as I tried I couldn’t get the thing to turn back so I could get you out.  
The base exploded, with you still inside, I screamed, and as much as I wanted to open the door it didn’t open, I survived, we won, but I had lost everything”.

Charles remembered all of that, but he did managed to get inside of one of the pots before the thing exploded to pieces, his headset was very damaged and so was him because the pod didn’t really shield him from the aftermath of the explosion and he had to fight a lot to get inside, communication was out before he could tell Henry…  
Of course he would believe he was dead! Although without the cyborg implants he probably would be dead, but he had made it back.

“Im sorry Henry, my headset was very damaged and I couldn’t tell you I had made it out, I made you so worried, I should had-“ Henry interrupted him

“If someone should be sorry its me, I didn’t thought about consequences, if I had you would still have your body, you shouldn’t have put your life on the line for me” Henry was angry with himself

“Hey, I made that choice Henry, I wanted you to live, of course I didn’t want you to think I would die and I didn’t managed to tell you but the mission was my idea, this is my fault” Charles didn’t want Henry to blame himself for anything

“Never do that again, I don’t want to win, not if it means losing you” he preferred to die with him than to have to live on without him.

“Still, we made it, that’s what matters now.  
Also now im a cool cyborg! That means we can go together on a lot more missions and I can be a lot more useful” Charles looked forward to that, working with his best friend

“I actually got a pardon for what I did, I want to leave that behind me, and after what you did, of course I look forward to working with you” Henry had to stick close to make sure Charles didn’t get into too much trouble.

“We are good together anyway, if I had to choose a partner I couldn’t have picked better” he wouldn’t have picked anyone else.

As soon as he was ready to leave the hospital they both explained the situation, Henry joined the military after that, now he was Charles partner and they went on a lot more missions together, they both were a force not to be reckoned with.

**Author's Note:**

> Longest one yet, i had a taste for angst and thought this was a good idea, combining two "Charles survives" ideas, the escape pod one and the cyborg one as well, i dont know anything about hospitals so... this might be weird but really i just wanted some feels.


End file.
